The village is located in the ethnographic area of Burzenland, on a flat, marshy area, approx. 10 km north from the Întorsurii Mountains and 5 km south from the Olt Valley. It has direct connections with Braşov and Sfântu Gheorghe on road and railway and through the Buzău Pass with Moldova and Wallachia.

It is the result of colonization. Its first attestation is from the year 1213. Prejmer was founded by the Teutonic Knights. After the expulsion of the chivalric orders from Burzenland, in 1225, the locality enjoyed the patronage of the Cistercian monks from Cârţa (Kerz).

Prejmer obtained a temporary right for fair organization and it was in the possession of „jus gladii” controlled by the Magistrate of Braşov, it had the right of choosing its representatives freely.

It is a compact settlement where the historical parcels are well preserved. The front of the houses are continuous, they are usually facing the street with their shorter sides. A special value of the village is the old channel system on the Broaştei and Morii streets and the laundry rinsing places preserved on the Izvoarelor street and at the extension of the Cetăţii street.

The village had been divided into districts based on ethnical criteria and this division was respected till the start of the Saxons’ massive migration.

The central place of the village is the market, with its most important building, the Evangelical fortified church. The enclosure is surrounded by a strong oval shaped defensive wall, with five towers, doubled with a second defensive wall completed in the 16^th -17^th century and a barbican for the defense of the southern entrance.

The enclosure has rooms for supplies, house for the priest, school, fountains and a graveyard. Thus it can be considered the strongest fortified ensemble of the rural areas in southeast of Europe.

The church, dedicated to the Holy Cross has a Latin cross on the top. Stylistically it bears the imprint of the early-Gothics and late-Gothics, but elements of the Renaissance and Baroque can also be discovered on it.

In the mid-fifteenth century, due to the royal order from 1427 about defensive systems to be built in the Burzenland, high, strong walls were built around the church, with four semicircular towers and a southern gate tower, surrounded with a water filled moat with a movable bridge over it. The enclosure’s wall has a protective walkway on the top with shooting holes and battlements. The access to the protective walkway is through the stairs built as part of the thick wall. The gate tower is short with a longitudinal half cylindrical vault, on double arches, its gates have hers and it has two floors with rooms.

On the interior side of the wall are the rooms and storage spaces of the community on four levels backed by the battlement and they have partially kept their historical bipartite and tripartite windows. The connection between the rooms was ensured by wooden galleries and exterior stairs.

Visit the fortified church:

Lutheran Parish of Prejmer, Phone no. +40268362042

Hours:

Tue-Sat 9:00-18:00

Sunday at 10:30

Monday closed

Religious service every Sunday at 9:30

Programs:

„Diletto musicale” Festival

„Musica Barcensis” Concert series